If you want to stay ahead of the times, get the Apple Watch

I’m going to call it - the Apple Watch will be as mainstream as the iPhone that’s in your hands now (700 million sold to date) in time to come.

Hasn’t the smartphone-pack leading iPhone taught you anything? How about the success stories of the iPod, iPad, and the MacBook? Heck, they even made gold less of a gaudy gleam and more of a fashion statement.

Mark my words, the Apple Watch is making big strides into the future, and you should get on it if you don’t want to be left behind.

It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when

This is Apple we are talking about after all. If there’s anyone you should consider taking a plunge with on a new category device, it’s these guys. The ones with the app ecosystem in place, the most clout with manufacturers and the best track record to boot.

Furthermore, it’s simple, and simplicity is timeless. The Apple Watch doesn’t try to do too much. It has sensors onboard to track your activity. It connects to your iPhone to make calls and send messages. If you think about it, there's a lack of really pertinent hardware that requires annual updates to stay relevant, like a camera or resolution since the display is so tiny. That could mean that so long as the Apple Watch gets OS updates, there’s really no need to upgrade to a new physical model every year. And that's if Apple is even going to make it an annual refresh (just look at the MacBook Air).

Having said that, the price now doesn’t seem so bad, does it? Considering that the total value of your iThings is around the ballpark figure of S$5000, the Apple Watch Sport will hardly register as a blip on your iSpend. You’ve already come so far with your iCollection after all. And it makes the most sense for an iUser to have one.

Future-primed

Given that no revolutionary new feature was announced since the Apple Watch’s official introduction last September, the collective reaction was pretty much an unimpressed “meh”.

Unless you dig a little deeper and reflect on all the little contextual clues that Apple was letting you in on during the keynote. CarPlay is being adopted by most major carmakers (although they didn’t name specifics). Apple Pay is now accepted in 700,000 locations (total tripled in a mere six weeks though no word on Singapore yet) and even at Coca Cola vending machines . Not to mention, they’re working hard on HomeKit.

All these point to a convenient connected future in which the Apple Watch will be indispensable, albeit in some countries sooner than others.

Imagine a not too far off future in which you tap your Apple Watch to your MacBook to turn it on instantly, tap your car’s dashboard to have CarPlay come on, bump wrists to transfer contacts, and have your Apple Watch constantly collect data to fix the world’s biggest health problems.

Yes, I’m talking about ResearchKit. That medical-research-contributing platform could be what finally makes wearables relevant, instead of the passive self-serving accessories that they currently are. If my medical data is going to contribute to saving lives one day, by all means, have at it.

Late to the game

But hang on. Singapore is not one of the first nine countries that the Apple Watch will be made available in from the start. And that’s really a blessing in disguise. Given Apple’s penchant for perfection, it’s only natural that they’d want to make sure the appropriate Apple Watch support is in place before unleashing them on the fanboys.

But once it is, I’ll be in the queue.

No Apple Watch here? It's for your own good

If you’re not so blinded by the marketing talk, take a good look at what you get (or actually can’t get) from the Apple Watch.